26 February 1910 in Burnham, Buckinghamshire
[registered in Eton, June 1910].

Census Notes

According to the 1911
census, one year old Victor is the youngest of twelve children, of which
ten of them are at home with George and Thirza, living in Chippenham. His
father, and eldest brother, works with the Great Western Railways. His
next eldest brothers work on the local diary farm.

Married

to
Betty Merrin [registered in Eton, December 1933]. Two children, Raymond
and Sylvia.While he was Bath City manager, they were living at
Charlotte Street in Bath.

Died

23 October 1978
in Bradford-on-Avon, aged
68 years 239 days[registered in Trowbridge, October 1978].

Height/Weight

5'
11½", 11st.
10lbs [1937].

Source

Douglas Lammings' An
English Football Internationalist Who's Who [1990] & FindMyPast.com

Club Career

Club(s)

Started
his career playing junior football in the Buckinghamshire area, and played with Chippenham FC,
before joining Windsor & Eton FC of the Spartan League as an amateur.
Had trials with Chelsea FC and Aldershot FC, but joined Chelsea in May 1931.
He made one appearance for Tottenham Hotspur FC during the war. He
remained with Chelsea, making 252 league appearances,
until he joined Bath City AFC on 22 December 1945, joined Derby County FC
three months later during their injury crisis, he made another
thirty league appearances and his last game for County was when he was
winning the FA Cup with them. Returned to Bath City AFC in May
1947, as player-manager. He remained until he resigned on 13 December
1949.In February 1950, Melksham Town FC approached Woodley to sign him
as an amateur. An opportunity Woodley turned down.

Club honours

Spartan
League winners 1929-30; FA Cup winners 1945-46;

Individual honours

Football
League (four appearances)

Distinctions

None

Source

Douglas Lammings' An English
Football Internationalist Who's Who [1990].

"Victor Robert Woodley,
former England and Chelsea goalkeeper, manager of Bath City FC, and living
at Bath, was at Windsor on Thursday [26 August 1948] committed to prison
for 14 days for failing to pay £11 2s. War Damage contributions.
Committal was made failing payment forthwith."A tax inspector stated that
the contributions owed by Woodley were in respect of property he formerly
lived in at Slough. They had given him every chance to pay, but he had
refused and there was no alternative but to ask for his committal."Vic Woodley was not in court
during the hearing of the case-actually he was in Bath. Mr Arthur
Mortimer, chairman of the Batch City Football Club, being apprised by this
newspaper of what had happened, immediately sought out Woodley and had a
talk with him."Soon after their conversation, a
representative of this newspaper interviewed Mr. Mortimer, who said:;" "It is perfectly true that
Vic is the man involved in this case. Proceedings, it appears, have been
protracted and there has been an amount in dispute relating to War Damage
Contributions which he has persistently refused to acknowledge."Woodley still denies that he
is responsible for this amount, which concerns a dispute between a former
owner of the property and himself. The War Damage people have put it on
Woodley, and he was summoned to appear in court. He did not appear to the
summons and now that a committal order has been made there is clearly only
one thing for him to do-he is obviously going to pay. Otherwise he
couldn't be in goal on Saturday."Woodley tells me" Mr.
Mortimer went on, "that he is quite adamant in his contention that he is
not responsible for this debt and would prefer to go to prison rather than
pay it. In fact, he would do this but for his obligation to Bath City
football team. He is now going to get in touch immediately with the
Windsor Police with a view to clearing the matter up." "-
Bath Weekly Chronicle & Herald, Saturday, 28 August 1938

Beyond England

Formerly an engineer. In February
1950, he became a licensee of The Barge Inn, on Frome Road in
Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, which was where he died. - An English Football Internationalists' Who's Who.
Douglas Lamming (1990). Hatton Press, p.275/6.

Vic Woodley - Career Statistics

Squads

Apps

Comp
Apps

Mins.

GA

GA Av.
min

Comp GA

Clean
Sheets

Cln
Sht Av

Capt.

Disc.

19

19

7

1710

26

66 min

11

7

37%

none

none

Due to the fact that
many matches rarely stuck to exactly ninety minutes long, allowing time
for injuries, errors and substitutions. The minutes here
given can only ever be a guideline and cannot therefore be accurate, only
an approximation.